Surgeons: High rates driving them away

Two general surgeons at Flagler Hospital said they will leave in May, due in part to huge increases in medical malpractice insurance rates.

The rate increases that are driving away Dr. Leopoldo Gonzalez and Dr. Mark Dobbertien have been scrutinized at length by the Florida Legislature.

Thursday, the state Senate passed a series of bills meant to reduce the cost of medical malpractice insurance. The measures include forcing insurance companies to cut rates, and granting some immunity to doctors operating in emergency rooms.

A month earlier, the Florida House of Representatives passed its malpractice insurance bill. It excluded the cut in rates, yet included a $250,000 cap on non-economic damages in medical malpractice lawsuits.

The Senate and the House have until May 2, the scheduled end of the session, to agree to a bill.

Meanwhile, some doctors throughout Florida are declining to perform surgery.

Gonzalez, a general surgeon at Flagler Hospital for 29 years, said he will leave in May for three to four months. Then he will either return or retire, depending in part on what is produced in the Legislature.

He said he has incentive to retire now, because his company will pay his "tail insurance," insurance that covers recently retired doctors against future lawsuits.

If he doesn't retire, he will face a 100 percent increase in rates to stay with his company -- and he has to stay with his company to get free tail insurance when he does retire.

If Gonzalez changes companies, he will have to pay the tail insurance himself, a cost that could be up to $90,000 per year, he said.

Dobbertien said he is leaving in May, and said "yes" when asked if it was because of insurance costs. Dobbertien will be working for the U.S. Navy, according to Joe Gordy, Flagler Hospital's senior vice president and chief operating officer.

Doctors have been saying for months that huge increases in rates will drive them out of the state.

The costs are increasing throughout the nation. However, the American Medical Association lists Florida as one of 18 crisis states.

Gordy said he wrote a letter to a legislative committee in an attempt to lobby for reduced rates and a cap on non-economic damages in lawsuits.

In response, "I got the old thank-you-for-your-interest letter," he said.

Hospital spokesman Wayne Johns said several phone calls were also made in attempts at lobbying.

Replacing surgeons who leave will be next to impossible, Gordy said.

He said he favors a cap on non-economic damages in lawsuits, which might "take time" to affect premiums but would immediately reduce doctors' risk. He said the Senate's push for immunity for some emergency room doctors will help the doctors, but it will make the hospital even more liable.

"That just makes my situation worse," Gordy said.

The Association of Florida Trial Lawyers says that a cap on non-economic damages would unfairly punish injured patients. The lawyers blame the rise in insurance rates on the collapse of the stock market following 9/11 and the incompetence of certain doctors.

The American Insurance Association blames it on the stock market and the greed of trial lawyers. Insurance companies have threatened to leave the state if their rates are forced down.

State Rep. Doug Wiles, D-St. Augustine, said the insurance business is all about spreading risk, and medical malpractice insurance involves a lot of risk for the insurer. Wiles, president of Herbie Wiles Insurance Co., was the only legislator on the First Coast who voted against the House's malpractice insurance bill in March. He said there was nothing in the bill that would immediately lower premiums for doctors.